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Loeb leads World Rally Championship opener in Monte Carlo

January 15, 2013

Nine-time series champion Sebastien Loeb is in the early lead in the World Rally Championship event at Monte Carlo. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Sebastien Loeb is making the most of his much-publicized partial schedule in the World Rally Championship this season, and he leads the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally by a dominant margin of 1 minute, 20 seconds after the first day's action.

Loeb, the nine-time world champion, is only scheduled to contest four rounds of this year's WRC with the factory Citroën squad. One of those four is this week's stop at Monte Carlo, where he has won six times.

Although he lost out to former teammate and rival Sebastien Ogier on the opening stage at Monte Carlo, a hat-trick of fastest times in three stages put him in the clear with Ogier second overnight following an impressive debut by the works Volkswagen outfit.

Loeb's teammate Mikko Hirvonen is third, almost 30 seconds behind Ogier, after a day spent bemoaning the changing stage conditions, which have ranged from dry to full ice and snow and made tire choice a tough call.

“There was less snow than this morning,” said Loeb at the end of Wednesday's final stage. “But near the end, while the road looked dry, it was freezing again and I lost any grip and some confidence. I had a few small moments, so I'm happy to be [in the lead] at the end of the day.”

Citroën returnee Dani Sordo was fourth, followed by Jari-Matti Latvala, who made up for a lackluster opening morning to hold fifth overnight in the second works volkswagen Polo.

Evgeny Novikov is sixth as the top Qatar M-Sport Ford Fiesta driver. However, it's been a day of frustration for his teammates. Mads Ostberg will start the day on Thursday saddled with a penalty of 1 minute, 50 seconds, after delays returning to final service when an electrical glitch halted his car on a road section. Juho Hanninen had been in the top six but delays getting pointed in the right direction following a spin on stage four led to a length delay. Thierry Neuville, meanwhile, retired after breaking a wheel.

Thursday's route features six stages. Snow and ice are again expected to be a factor.